Evaluation : Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

One way that our final product uses the general conventions in a horror production is through the use of symbolism i.e. white. We have used white for the dress of Evangeline as she is a young girl.

However, she is possessed by a demon and this challenges the convention at the same time as using it. This is because there is a juxtaposition through the symbolism of white; youth, purity and innocence whilst the child is possessed. This is then supported by the blood that is shown on her dress, face and hands which shows danger and death. Furthermore the black around her eyes contrasts the white even further as it shows the darkness within Evangeline. Moreover, there is no specific angle to this shot which means that Evangeline is composed in the centre rather than being shown as vulnerable through the use of a high angle. This adds to her demonic behavior as she is portrayed as a powerful character.

We developed on the conventions by using this extreme close-up; we used this to show Evangeline’s emotions. This convention is used within horror films to show the characters emotions – usually fear. In this shot we can see that Evangeline expression is almost emotionless, showing her lack of remorse. Her eyes are vacant and there’s no expression on her face which is how we, as a group, have developed this convention.

As well as this, we challenge the conventions further as we have used a female killer rather than a male. The majority of horror films she women as vulnerable and feeble. The female character is then disposed of or saved by a ‘stronger’ and ‘smarter’ male character, to emphasise their vulnerability. The vulnerability is shown through the mise-en-scene, camera shots, editing, ect. However, we challenged this by putting of female character as the most powerful and most dangerous character in our product. In addition, as Evangeline is young, innocent and a killer it challenges on the symbolism of innocence.

Another way that our product uses and develops conventions is by the use of blood. We have used blood on almost every shot for our opening, in some ways we have also challenged this convention. So, for example when we see the blood covered hand next to the white teddy bear. 

The two contrast each other and the shot is quite striking due to this. This is seen in quite a few shots, including those with Evangeline. She is plastered with blood and this challenges the convention as she is a youth. The audience can also see this in our titles as we have produced a white text that contrasts with the blood splatters and black background that surrounds it. 

We then developed this idea by using a normal girl’s laughter, from FreeSound, and changing the pitch and making the sound reverberate. This made the laughter sound disorientated and sinister as it created an eerie echo and the pitch contributed to the youth being portrayed. Along with this, the music box added to this further as it challenged the visuals as it sounded sweet and child-like, but the shots are vivid and quite malevolent.

A third way that we used conventions was through the use of black and white.

This created a mysterious atmosphere to our final outcome as not all of the image could be seen properly, which was intended, to add to the possession of Evangeline. Although she appears to be innocent, she has a darker side which is what we needed to work with.

Through the use of sound, we have developed the convention as we have used samples from freesound.org which enabled us to create our opening.

We have already looked at this sound before, in our research, but it is relevant to our work as it also combines samples. You can hear, in our opening, a music box, laughter and an exorcism. We then distorted the clips by reverberating and changing the pitch so that it sounded sinister. We developed the convention by using a music box, which conveys a child's possession, quite literally. This added to our project effectively as it allowed us to challenge innocence of a youth further. To summarise, the laughter also added to this concept as it sounded child-like, but at the points where it can be heard the project appeared to be more of a horror.

Looking back at our research and planning, when we looked at the openings of Dead Wood, Dead Mary and Wrong Turn, I feel that we have challenged more conventions than developed or used them. This is because we based the whole project on the innocence of Evangeline rather than anything else. However, the main point is that she is a youth but also a killer, which is unexpected and this is the major impact of how we challenges the conventions.